1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging device and imaging method capable of obtaining a plurality of images with different characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of imaging devices, a technique has been known in which a plurality of images with different characteristics are obtained by imaging a plurality of times with varied imaging conditions or using lens systems having a plurality of characteristics and the obtained images are processed according to the purpose (for example, refer to PTL 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-122055 and PTL 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-270526). The optical system described in PTL 1 describes that two or more curved surfaces with different radiuses of curvature are concentrically arranged in a taking lens to obtain a plurality of focal length regions with a single lens and, by performing restoring processing on an image obtained by using this taking lens, an image corresponding to each focal length is obtained. Similarly, also in the imaging optical system described in PTL 2, with varied curvature between an inner region and an outer region of an image forming lens, each region has a different focal length, and images corresponding to a plurality of focal lengths can be obtained.